Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Miracle of Christmas

Tonight, Chris and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to see The Miracle of Christmas at the Sight and Sound Millennium Theater. What a gift, and what an experience.

The theater itself was incredible. Broadway quality sound and lighting. Amazingly scripted dialogue and expertly crafted sets. The music was touching and moving – and the experience itself transported us to 2,000 years ago.

But the most amazing part? The gift of the show inside the gift? (Got that?)….Doc, the friend from church that took us to the show, is on staff. Not just on staff, but, in short, the man in charge of all the coolest stuff.

Doc is in charge of design, engineering, execution and production of all sets. He’s the man that makes all the actors look like they are really where they are pretending they are. :) He took us backstage and into the workshop after the show to let us in on a bit of what his world is like. The shop is currently in full-gear preparing for the upcoming production of Joseph.

Chris took a few pics on his cell phone so that you could begin to get an idea of what the shop was like. And when we say shop, think to yourself a Wal-Mart with no aisles or scary linoleum floors. This is Doc showing us a model that the art department creates; a miniature to scale that they then make into the next picture…. This is an alligator made for a dance…kinda Chinese-dragon-ish. But the amazing part? Looks like metal, made from moldable lightweight plastic and then covered with spandex; yup, the kind you wear if you are a gymnast or a ballerina. From the wings of the main stage. Kissing a very lifelike penguin from the Creation production this past year. I thought that being able to play in this workshop would be a dream come true. There are soooo many cool props and sets…and animals that are animatronic. I think that Hudson, Anna and I could easily spend a week in there playing pretend. Just the animals alone would send them into a tailspin!Chris hangin out on the soon-to-be pit where Joseph will be thrown by his brothers.I am soooo strong – that is obviously a huge boulder that I am easily lifting above my head.

It was a fabulous experience. Not just a huge thanks to Doc and his wife, but a huge thanks to Grandmom, who took the little people for the evening so that Chris and I could have an evening to ourselves. Here’s a clue what Grandmom did with the kiddos. I had to share – it’s just too cute.